True Blood's Marshall Allman: "Team Tommy Is On the Rise"

True Blood's Tommy Mickens (Marshall Allman) has finally found a family this season — albeit an unconventional one. Unfortunately, Maxine Fortenberry's tendency to treat Tommy as a substitute Hoyt (Jim Parrack) will bring on a new set of problems in Season 4.

"What he wants deep down is a family," Allman tells TVGuide.com. "He wants to be loved, so that relationship just serves both of their needs. Max feels abandoned by Hoyt, and Tommy, even though he left his mom, feels abandoned by his mom because she chose her husband, my dad, over me."

Though Max provides a roof over his head, early on Tommy will make an ethically dubious decision in hopes of, among other things, mending fences with his brother, Sam (Sam Trammell). "Everything Tommy's doing, he's always trying to do it for good," Allman says. "He thinks he's doing something right and he's justified in some way."

Allman says it will be a tough road for the estranged brothers though. "Sam and Tommy are trying to see if one another is trustworthy to be brothers. That's what we're working toward."

The efforts to repair their relationship will be made more difficult by a new shapeshifting discovery. "There's a new animal that's going to kind of rock everything and shift the dynamic of the show because, as of this point, all of the animals have been kind of non-consequential, but the new animal is going to be game-changing."

Amidst this, Sam's past will come back to haunt him once again. "Sam's got his own closet of enemies that we're going to see. It's not like Sam's past is done catching up with him." Whether their family will return to also shake things up remains unseen. "Until they're dead, I wouldn't rule that out," Allman adds.

Even though Allman insists that in Season 4, "Team Tommy is on the rise," Tommy won't go through the season unscathed. "Whenever he does these things, he's not getting away with it," he says. "It's not like he doesn't miss out on what's coming to him. He gets what he deserves."

Having already filmed the finale, Allman says this is True Blood's bloodiest season-ender yet. "I would say last season was 34 ounces of blood. This season, it's going to be 96 ounces of blood. Nobody's safe in Bon Temps."

Among all the blood and mayhem, Allman was able to shoot a hilarious Funny or Die video with new co-star Janina Gavankar. The short depicted Allman as believing he could really shapeshift on set, which gave the actor a chance to show his, ahem, birthday suit. "I felt like my privacy was invaded," the 27-year-old actor jokes with a hearty laugh. "I'm a very shy person, and my body is my temple, so it was very shocking at first."

More invading, he says, was the fact that fans got a glimpse into how he really acts on set. "It's unfair how I am on set," Allman deadpans. "Everyone on set understands that, and if Janina has a problem with that, well, she can take her problem you-know-where. Now that the cat's out of the bag, and everybody knows how it is, for all those people that want to try to shapeshift, maybe they can learn a lesson."